ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2021

October 21, 2021

Mahmudullah

Oman Cricket Academy Ground

Bangladesh

Post Match Media Conference

Bangladesh - 181/7 (20), Papua New Guinea - 97 (19.3)

Q. It's been a long journey in a short time. How much confidence does the win give you and the team heading into potentially the next phase of matches?

MAHMUDULLAH: I think this win, I think probably will give us a bit of more confidence going to the Super 12 in Sharjah. We all know that there will be teams who are very highly competitive and highly skilled. But in Sharjah, we'll be hopefully taking on those challenges and try to improve ourselves with them, and we are looking forward to those challenges.

Q. How proud are you of the way the team has reacted to that first match day defeat against Scotland?

MAHMUDULLAH: I think the thing that happened in our first game plan, I think we should give a lot of credit to the Scotland team. They have executed their plans very well.

Having said that, probably we were trying too hard because the expectations were there to get us a win. But we didn't do it. But after that, we had a good chat, how we want to represent ourselves because we always feel a lot of pride when we wear a national jersey. It takes a lot of courage, a lot of commitment, as I mentioned to these guys, a lot of them having painkillers, having injuries, but still giving more than a hundred percent, that was a good thing to see. We are all eagerly wanting to perform for our team, each and every individual. That's what matters, because within ourselves, we can try with our heart out, but sometimes we are also humans and we can do mistakes.

So sometimes we need to sit back and see those things, how do we need to rate on those things and try not to replicate on those things when we get to the Super 12. But I think the energy was there. The energy was quite building in the team.

Credit goes to Shakib and Mushi and all the other guys who have been around me, and all the other players who have been supporting each other, that was the crucial thing.

Q. Was today's performance Bangladesh performing at their best or is there still more to come from this Bangladesh team?

MAHMUDULLAH: I think if you see our batting today, the thing we have been talking about -- because the first two games we haven't been up to the mark in the first six overs, both in the bat and the ball. So we had a good chat within ourselves that the intent has to be there. We need to be clear mind and with aggressive and positive attitude. We are happy that we have executed our plans quite well. But having said that, we can't just sit back. We still need to be thinking ourselves as an improving side and we need to prove it again.